I’d argue that most NES games (possibly outside of the Mario games) have not held up particularly well, and that absolutely includes The Legend of Zelda. From the weird need to find items and dungeon entrances behind bombable walls, to the game inexplicably letting you buy 4 of the same item when you can only use 1. It’s for sure a quirky, old game and I’m grateful to modern guides and save states on NSO for making it easier to experience. It took me way too long to finally play the first game from my favorite game series of all time, but I’m glad I did.

+ Cool to see the origins of items, enemies, and characters of the Zelda franchise
+ This game was probably wicked cool in 1986

- Not terribly intuitive to play in 2023
- Hidden dungeons and items behind unmarked destroyable walls
- You can buy duplicates of unique items for some reason
- Finding 100 rupees when your wallet is full just wipes them from the game
- The music loops are so short and repetitive I found myself, for the first time in my life, muting a Zelda game